by V. Vaughn
“This is nice, right?” he asks.
“It is. Thank you.” We lie quietly as I listen to the wind howling outside of the truck, and I think of being a kid wishing for a snow day.
“What did you used to do on a snow day?” Ryan asks.
“Oh my gosh, I was just thinking about that.”
“You were?” He chuckles. “I loved them because it meant I could play outside all day.”
“Me too. We’d build snow forts in the yard and I’d set up a kitchen in it to play house.” I sigh as I recall how I’d pretend to have a husband and two children in the perfect home I imagined for myself.
“Do you like to cook?”
“I do, but I’m not very good at it. And I don’t really have anyone to cook for, so I only make the basics.”
“I’d like you to cook for me. Or let me cook for you.”
“Are you good at it?” I ask.
“I get by, but I think it can be fun. I’m not sure if you can tell, but I love to eat.”
“Shockingly, I am the same way.” I laugh.
Ryan hugs me a little tighter. “Good, because it’s no fun to eat alone. When we get a chance, lets cook together. We can try a new recipe and teach ourselves something.”
I smile. “I like that plan. I’ve always wanted to make crème brûlée.”
“The custard?”
“Yes. With the caramelized sugar on top that you make with a torch.”
He laughs. “Does my mate want to cook or play with fire?”
“A little of both,” I admit. The word mate no longer freaks me out. In a weird way it’s becoming something I like to be called. “It just looks so cool when they do it on TV.”
“It does. Okay, I’ll bring the fire extinguisher,” he says. “That way we can have a candlelit dinner too.”
My smile grows when I imagine Ryan in my small kitchen. I picture romantic lighting at my table and go with the fantasy as I say, “We can dance slowly to soft music after we eat.”
“Yes, I’d like that. And then we can sit on the couch and tell each other all our stories. I want to know who little Chrissy was.”
“And I want to hear about Ryan’s awkward years,” I tease.
“I did not have awkward years,” he says.
“Really? You got that big without an embarrassing growth spurt that had your pants too short?”
“Hey! Were you in my junior high?”
I laugh with him. “Yes, I was the girl with her hair in her face to cover the severe case of acne I was sure I had when it was likely just a few pimples.”
“I would have thought you were beautiful anyway.”
“And I would have thought you were the cutest boy I’d ever seen no matter how short your pants were.”
“I know you’re joking, but we really would have felt that way. That’s how it works with true mates, Chrissy.”
“So we could have been childhood sweethearts?”
“I’m content with being adult ones,” he says. “Destiny knows what she’s doing, and I believe she had a reason to make me wait so long to find you.”
I think about the big age difference I’m sure exists and chuckle. “You mean you had to wait until I grew up. How old are you?”
“Thirty-five.”
“Cradle robber,” I joke. “I’m only twenty-three.”
He loosens his grip. “Does our age difference bother you?”
I shake my head and pull his arms in tighter. “I’m hoping it means you’re finally mature enough for me.”
He lets out a snort. “You and destiny have been talking.”
“We have. How do you think I knew about the pants?”
Ryan laughs, and I think about the way he talks about destiny as if it’s a person. And true mates… the idea is beginning to sound like it could be real. I mean, with a man who’s like a human furnace and can heal like a superhero, I suppose anything is possible. And it makes me dare to dream that I could be in love with Ryan forever.
The connection we seem to have must be affecting my heart, because I’m full of more than warmth from his body heat. The warm glow of love is rushing through my veins making me believe Ryan and I are truly meant to be, and I hug his arms a little tighter, content to believe the dream for a while longer.
Chapter 12
Ryan
* * *
I wake on the morning of Christmas Eve with my true mate in my arms. It’s a dream I was beginning to think might never come true. But I want more than to keep Chrissy warm enough to sleep through a storm. I want her by my side forever, and I hope she’ll be able to get there.
She stirs in my arms, and I’m glad she’s waking. The storm has stopped, and I imagine the sun is shining based on the glow of the white snow stuck on the windows. I want to get out of the truck and flag down an early morning traveler for help. “Hey, sleepy one,” I say.
She lets out a moan and sits up, rubbing her eyes. “Wow. I slept really well.” She smiles at me. “Thanks for being my blanket. You were very warm.”
“I’m glad I could help.” I glance toward the door. “I’m going to dig us out so the truck is visible to anyone passing by.”
“Good idea. I’ll help.”
“No need.”
She pouts at me. “Don’t ruin my snow day.”
I smile. “What was I thinking? C’mon, let’s play in the snow.”
I shove my way out the door, and we find a bright blue sky with full sun shining over a vast expanse of white. Pine tree limbs sag with the weight of snow and the air is crisp, but the cold doesn’t seem to bother my mate. Chrissy lifts her face to the sun and inhales it deeply. “I love the smell of fresh snow.”
I notice my coat looks like a dress on her, and when she turns to smile at me, she’s more radiant than the sun. Her brown eyes twinkle with joy as she moves to push snow off the side of the truck with a gloved hand.
I say, “I have a snow brush in the truck bed.”
“You can use it if you want, but I’m fine.” Chrissy keeps wiping snow away, and it floats in the air around her like a sparkly aura. She says, “I love powder, but this stuff is horrible for building snow forts. You need a good wet snow for that,” she says as if I didn’t grow up in snow country.
“Snowmen, too.” I work on clearing snow from the roof of the truck. I see the road is clear, which means we both slept through a plow truck going by at some point. But it also means other cars will be going by today.
“Or snow women.” She giggles. “When I lived with my foster mom Barbara, my foster sister and I decided to make one. We were sure Barbara would scold us for making little snow boobs, but she surprised us by squealing with glee when she saw it.”
“We didn’t make many snowmen.” I move to the back of the truck where I push a large clump of snow off the bed cover onto the ground with a soft whoosh. “We were too busy having snowball fights.”
“I hope you built snow walls to hide behind.”
“We sure did, and they were epic. One guy would be working on snowballs to stockpile while the others would build the wall. There would be lots of discussion about the construction and how big we could make it. We spent more time getting ready than actually having the snowball fight.”
Chrissy laughs. “That sounds about right.” She steps back to survey the truck. “I’d play outside until I was too wet and cold to stand it, and then I’d go in for hot soup and a grilled cheese sandwich. There’s nothing better than that.”
“Beef stew at my house, and of course hot chocolate.”
“Of course,” she agrees. She puts a hand up to shield her eyes from the sun, and she looks toward the road. “We really are out in the middle of nowhere, but at least they plowed.”
“Yes. Someone should be coming by soon.”
“Yeah.” She lets out a sigh that makes me think she doesn’t want to leave me any more than I want her to go. “Should we set out the hazard signs?”
I nod and move to dig them out from under t
he back seat. As I pull them out of the truck, I’m struck in the back of the head by a handful of snow. I turn to a grinning Chrissy, and she shrugs playfully.
“I see how you are, attacking a man from behind.” I squat down to drop the signs and grab a handful of snow to toss her way.
She squeals and takes off in a run, but I catch her around the waist a few steps later and lift her off her feet. She laughs as I swing her over my shoulder. “Hey,” she says as she pounds on my back without force. “I’m not a cavewoman. Put me down.”
I chuckle as I eye the snowbank. “Whatever the lady wants.” I lower her to the ground and tackle her into the snowbank.
She laughs and grabs snow to shove in my face. I laugh too as I let go of her to wipe the coldness off my cheeks. “You fight dirty.”
She raises her hands over her head as she continues to lie in the snow and gives me a sexy smile. “So do you. Have I mentioned how hot it is that you toss me over your shoulder so easily?”
A low growl rumbles in my chest as desire for her ramps up. I place my hands in the snow on either side of her head to lean in close. “If you like that, then I have a few other ideas.”
She pumps her eyebrows at me and grabs the front of my coat to tug me closer. “So do I.” Chrissy put a hand on the back of my head and pulls me in for a kiss.
I’m surprised by her action, but the moment our mouths connect, I’m sure glad she made a move. No kiss has ever touched me the way this one does. It’s like the sun broke through the clouds and is shining so brightly we couldn’t ignore it if we tried. Our attraction is a tingle rushing through me as it sparks our connection to life, threatening to turn into a wildfire of passion. But no matter how badly I want to flip Chrissy over onto me and explore her curves as I taste her sweet lips, I restrain myself. When I pull away, I see her cheeks are flushed and her mouth is ruby red.
She bites her lower lip and grins at me. “Wow.”
The low rumble of a truck is detectable for me as I smile and stand to hold out my hand to help her up. Chrissy lets me pull her up, and she steps close to gaze up at me with the love I feel. I pull her against me and sigh.
But then she hears the truck too and gasps. “Someone’s coming.” She pulls away from me to move to the side of the road and begins to wave her arms. As the eighteen-wheeler approaches, it slows down, and when it gets closer, Chrissy turns to me with a bewildered expression. “A car carrier? I’m beginning to think destiny does exist.”
An empty car carrier pulls to a stop just past us, and Chrissy and I jog toward it as an older guy with white hair and full white beard sticks his head out his passenger window. I can tell from his scent he’s a werebear. “Looks like you folks got yourself into a fender bender.”
“Last night,” Chrissy says when we get to him. “We hit a tree while avoiding a moose.”
“You spent the night camped in the truck?”
She nods and I notice the guy scan her body. I’m sure he knows she’s human, and he’s probably wondering what we’re doing together. “Looks like you picked the right guy to get stuck with.” He chuckles. “That coat’s practically a sleeping bag on you.”
She smiles at him before looking at me, and I see happiness in her eyes as she says, “I sure did.”
The man’s eyes widen, and then he grins as if he knows we’re true mates. And I’m relieved to see he doesn’t have any reservations about it. Apparently, neither does Chrissy any longer. I don’t know what changed her mind, but today she seems perfectly happy to be with me. So happy that I dare to believe she’s ready to be my mate.
Chapter 13
Chrissy
* * *
The guy in the car carrier gets out of the vehicle and walks over to the truck to check out the damage. “Where you two headed?”
“The same direction you are,” Ryan says. “I need to get to Arctic Point for Christmas if I can. Can you tow us to the nearest auto mechanic? I’d look it up, but I don’t have any cell service.”
“Welp,” the man rubs his long beard and chuckles, “I’ve got good news and bad news.”
My heart sinks, thinking he’s going to tell us something that will mean Ryan won’t make it to Arctic Point in time for Christmas.
“The name’s Barry.” He holds out a hand almost as large as Ryan’s to him.
“Ryan, and this is Chrissy.”
The man shakes my hand too, and I notice how warm it is. “The good news,” he says, “is that I’m heading to the town just south of Arctic Point and can take you all the way if you want.”
“I’d really appreciate that, thank you,” Ryan says. “But what’s the bad news?”
The older man’s grin is huge in his ruddy face, and his blue eyes twinkle with mischief when he winks at me. “You’ve got me for company until we get there.” He lets out a laugh that comes from deep inside of him, and I find myself chuckling with him.
When he moves to the back of his truck, Ryan asks, “Can I help?”
“Nope. But you should grab whatever you want with you for the ride.”
I walk over to our vehicle with Ryan. He turns to me when we get there. “I’m sure Barry wouldn’t have any trouble dropping you off at the detachment center if that’s what you still want.”
My heart stops for a moment. I’ve been in a euphoric daze since I woke up in the arms of a man who loves me. In the light of a new day, I’ve realized I am in love with Ryan. Like all the strange things I’ve encountered since last night, it doesn’t make sense that I could feel so deeply for someone I just met, but I no longer want to fight it. Perhaps it’s because I almost died, but I think I’ve had a whole new life handed to me, and what would be foolish is to ignore the gift.
But I can’t ignore reality, and as scared as I am to trust that Ryan will still be around after I sort through my mess, I don’t see much choice. “I think it’s what I need to do.”
“I understand. I’ll tell Barry we need to make a stop.”
“No,” I say. It’s sweet that Ryan wants to take care of me, but this is my problem. “I’ll do it.”
After we gather a few things, Ryan grabs my hand and gazes down at me as we walk toward the car carrier. “I’m proud of you, Chrissy.”
“Thanks. I—” I want to tell him that I’m afraid once they drop me off, I’ll never see him again and make him promise he’ll come back for me. But I don’t need another empty promise I convince someone to offer. I shake my head.
Ryan stops walking. “I’m going to get you a lawyer as soon as I have a cell signal, and as soon as my duties are done in Arctic Point, I’ll come back for you.”
I nod, wanting more than anything to believe that’s what he’ll really do. “Thanks.”
“Everything is going to be okay. I’m sure of it.”
I give him a smile. “I know.”
A chain clatters as Barry hooks a winch up to the back bumper of Ryan’s truck. He gets the vehicle up onto the trailer, and we climb into the cab of his truck to go.
Barry turns to us once he’s begun to drive. “I bet you two haven’t had any breakfast, have you?”
“We don’t want to be any trouble,” Ryan says. He glances at me and I nod. “We can wait until you stop for lunch.”
“Lunch? Ha!” Barry rubs his round belly. “You two might not mind missing a meal, but the missus’ll tan my hide if I do. There’s a place up ahead that has the best pancakes you’ll ever taste.”
My mouth waters when I think about pancakes. I glance at Ryan, and he shrugs before he says, “Breakfast it is.”
A half hour later I’m devouring buttery pancakes doused with real maple syrup while Barry and Ryan discuss people they both know in Arctic Point. When I finish eating, there’s a break in the conversation, and I know it’s time to ask Barry if he’ll take me to the police.
I wipe my mouth with a napkin and take a deep breath. “Barry, if it’s not too much trouble, could you drop me off at the RCMP detachment center in Paris Springs?”
He raises his eyebrows at me over his cup of coffee. “I could.”
I appreciate it when he doesn’t ask me why, and Ryan reaches over and takes my hand to give it a squeeze. I offer him a wry smile before looking at Barry again. “I managed to get myself into a situation, and we were actually on the way to the police last night before we hit the tree.”
“I see.” He looks at Ryan. “And you can’t be with her, I gather, because of your Santa duties. It’s a shame you won’t have a Mrs. Claus by your side.”
Ryan says, “Yes, but Chrissy needs to do what she thinks is right.”
“She’s nice.”
I frown because Barry statement makes me think of Santa’s naughty and nice list, and I wonder why he choose the word nice for me. He tilts his head at me as he takes another sip of his coffee, but it doesn’t hide his secretive smile that makes me think he’s up to something. I look at Ryan, who seems awfully interested in scraping up the bit of egg yolk left on his plate, making me more confused than ever.
Ryan pays for breakfast, and we make our way back to Barry’s truck. I grab Ryan’s hand to fall behind Barry, and I whisper to him, “What’s going on? Why did he say I’m nice?”
“Because you are,” Ryan says as if I asked a silly question.
I suppose at this point it is silly, since that last twelve hours have been the strangest of my life. “Great,” I mumble. “Maybe I’m the odd one.”
“You’re not,” Ryan says. He smiles down at me with so much love my chest tightens with a sudden urge to cry. “You’re amazing.”
Tears spring to my eyes as his compliment makes me want to sing and dance and laugh. I realize I’m so in love with him that even the idea I might sit in jail for a while doesn’t seem bad. “So are you,” I say before I begin to hum “Deck the Halls.”
Barry turns and smiles at me. “I’m glad you like Christmas songs, because I’m about to make you two sing them with me.”
I know the man isn’t joking, and I may skip a little the rest of the way to the truck. While the strange scenario I’m in the midst of isn’t anything I’d ever have dreamed of for Christmas, it doesn’t matter, because this is turning out to be my best holiday ever.
